Good Stories, Bad Stories

I'm not sure how many of you follow sailing anarchy, but here's a clip with some details about this past weekend's Southern Straits:

The following was written by one of the members of the "Radical Departure" team.

[ quote ]
only 4 boats were left standing when it was called off. We got a phone call that the Commodore of the host club, David Chard, lost the mast on his Dufour 38 Radiance and Julie Kadar and Dorothy Cunningham's Benetau First 38 It's Magic saw the stick go into the drink and stood by while one of the only BC Ferries still running hove to and provided a lee while Radiance got their ship in order and underway. Ian Lloyd's Schock 35 Fancy Free also had the rig go over the side and at one point were seen going like hell forward with the white sails up while the kite was in perfect trim behind and going backwards and half under water which pretty much wins them the Unique Trim Trophy.

We were sitting in the harbor bar and watching the carnage on the new arrivals and toasting the event when we saw an ambulance pull onto the Government Dock to pick up some of the crew of Clint Curries Incisor, which had sunk. Tony Brogan's J-30 Radiant Heat had retired and was motoring to Nanaimo and saw what looked like a rig standing up in the water with no boat attached. They went to investigate and found Clint and his 5 crewmates hanging onto the overturned hull. All were hypothermic by then and Clint was unresponsive when they got him aboard and one other guy aboard. The other four were pulled from the water by the Caost Guard after they arrived on location. Life is sometimes just a thread and if Radiant Heat hadn't been damaged when and where it was and been lucky enough to have seen an anomaly and smart enough to go to investigate this could very easily have been a different story. The water is stinking cold, the seas were rough and breaking and the crew of Incisor didn't have a radio or flares available. Fortunately, all recovered in hospital and went home.

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[ I'd provide a link to the original, if sailing anarchy did that sort of thing. If you're quick enough, you might see the whole article on the front page of SA here: http://sailinganarchy.com ]

I'll blog my own much less interesting experience later, but thought I'd share that one, since it's timely.